Severe downturn? YES! Make the most of it with clear financial leadership

Don’t treat it with bitterness. It is the job of the Financial Controller to rise to the challenges presented by a recession, rather than bitterness. Done well, you will emerge leaner and stronger. And you will be ready for a return to strong growth.

– So what can we as Financial Controllers and CFOs do to make the most of 2013 and its financial dip?

Clear financial leadership

Uncertainty breeds uncertainty, and so in the financial sector too. Since the recession does not look like it is going to dissipate any time soon, Financial Controllers cannot simply “wait it out’. Rather, Financial Controllers should be drafting a list of objectives for the year – from automating reconciliation processes to providing strategic insight to directors – and pursuing these aims with vigour.

– So why not set out to make 2013 into a year for strong and clear financial leadership?

Hence, it is the job of the Financial Controllers to rise to the challenges presented by a recession, rather than treat it with bitterness. Because it is those that use the recession to improve, that will emerge leaner and stronger and ready for a return to strong growth. And You will probably not find the time later, so now is the time.

Using your cognitive surplus

Google have implemented what they call “20% time” – a concept of setting aside one day per individual, each week to work on whatever projects their staff want, as long as they benefit the company. This unstructured time may sound risky, but from “20% time’ Google have realised such projects as Gmail and Adsense and others. This phenomenon is referred to “tapping into the company’s cognitive surplus’. And for those that employ this practice it, it is not risky, but can bring about those business boosting “Hallelujah’ moments.

Part of the problem with implementing “20%’ or “innovation’ time is the pressure to manage a timely account close process each month. With that pressure always looming and the difficulty in gathering all the required payments and invoices, where can the accounts department find the time to innovate?

One way in which you can both reduce error risk and free up time for your accounts department is by automating tedious and time-consuming tasks, like the account reconciliation management process.

Data matching across your accounts in order to reconcile your ledgers is a task better suited to automation. Automatic account reconciliation software can cut your reconciliation time from hours, or even days, to mere minutes and is a lot more accurate than completing by hand. It also frees up your staff’s precious time, allowing them to complete more valuable and challenging tasks.

– A Financial Department has a strict load of issues to execute. But allowing yourself and your colleagues to tap into its cognitive surplus, by setting aside only a few hours per month, can definitely be worthwhile. You yourself and your colleagues probably have many solutions to eradicate ineffective and error-prone financial processes.